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Help needed for an amputee pensioner

Louis would undergo a further five amputations, simply because each time a chop was made, the flesh would begin to rot again.

September 14, 2018

LOUIS Peter (75) has undergone 10 operations of which six were amputations since he fell from a ladder and broke his ankle in March.

All his life Louis had been a hard-working, independent individual who just about never needed any assistance from his daughter Melissa Jansen. That all changed in March this year when Louis fell from a ladder while on a job and broke his right ankle.

Most people would think to follow the standard procedure – go to the hospital, have the injury stapled/stitched, placed in a cast, and in a few months, his leg should have healed. That was not the case, however, as within a matter of days of the procedure, Louis’s foot and lower leg began to rot.

Doctors were not sure why Louis’s leg had begun rotting, but they knew they had to amputate. Louis’s first amputation occurred on March 26, with the amputation approximately 10cm below his knee.

Louis would undergo a further five amputations, simply because each time a cut was made, the flesh would begin to rot again. When he was preparing to have his final operation, Louis was instructed to go for a CT angiogram, which is a scan that maps the blood flow in the body.

The results of the scan showed Louis only had blood flow up until ±10cm above his knee, which is where the final amputation was made. This explained why the flesh had rotted every time an amputation was performed.

The process had been excruciating for Louis who, for the majority of his six amputations, was not under anaesthetic, but simply numb to the feeling of his leg being cut. This meant he was able to hear how they had to cut away pieces of his leg.

In all, Louis spent two months and three weeks in Helen Joseph Hospital, undergoing six amputations and 10 operations before his discharge in late June.

Now the family is trying to raise funds to get him a prosthetic leg, which costs about R45 000. Louis used to run a club in Kenilworth called Jack’s Den for something like 20 years back in his younger years. A lot of people in the South would know him personally as ‘Jackpot’.

Louis has since moved in with his daughter Melissa, and her husband and two children. He has quickly adapted to living with his family instead of alone, becoming best friends with his granddaughter, Peyton, who is five years old.

Peyton’s favourite activity to do around the house with her grandfather is to go for ‘train rides’ in his lap, in the wheelchair. Louis also regularly cooks for the family, especially when Melissa and her husband Rodney return home late from work.

Melissa has since started a crowdfunding campaign on Click n Donate to raise funds to get her father a prosthetic leg.